WASHINGTON — The Trump administration proposed a rule on Wednesday night intended to prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving federal housing assistance, the latest step in its efforts to ramp up enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws.

The proposal, according to an administration official, is intended to overturn what the official described as a Clinton-era loophole that allowed some undocumented immigrants to obtain public housing without revealing their citizenship status. The rule would ensure that the social safety net is awarded only to verified American citizens and legal residents.

The long waiting lists for public housing prompted the crackdown, the official said, adding that the rule would affect about 25,000 households.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which proposed the rule, would require expanded use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program, known as SAVE, a program administered by the Department of Homeland Security.

SAVE is meant to help federal and local government agencies quickly verify a person’s immigration and citizenship status, and determine whether people are eligible for benefits. It was not immediately clear whether HUD was also targeting undocumented immigrants who might live in public housing with a spouse or a family member who is an American citizen.

A spokesman for HUD, Raffi Williams, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment.

Julián Castro, the former housing secretary under President Barack Obama and a current Democratic presidential candidate, criticized the proposal.

“Once again, the Trump administration is using the immigrant community as a punching bag to distract his base from his own political troubles,” he said. “The bottom line is that our government is terrorizing families — first with ICE raids, now with evictions.”

The rule was delivered to Congress on Wednesday night for a 15-day review period. After that, there will be 60 days for public comment. If the rule goes into effect, undocumented immigrants living in public housing would not be immediately removed, the official said. They would be given up to 18 months, through three six-month waivers, to relocate.

The move is not the first time the Trump administration has sought to crack down on immigrants using the public safety net. For months, Stephen Miller, one of President Trump’s top advisers and the architect of his immigration agenda, has pushed the administration to complete a new regulation that would penalize legal immigrants who rely on public benefits like Section 8 housing vouchers or food assistance. The regulation would give officials more power to declare an immigrant who uses welfare benefits to be a “public charge,” making him or her ineligible for permanent legal status.

Like the administration’s other efforts to crack down on immigrants, the public housing rule also fits Mr. Trump’s message to his core supporters as he begins his 2020 re-election campaign.

The president and his top political advisers believe that no issue better symbolizes their commitment to keeping the United States safe and prosperous than Mr. Trump’s pledge to rid the country of undocumented immigrants and drastically reduce the flow of legal immigrants into the country.

In addition to a crackdown at the southwestern border, where Mr. Trump has sought to toughen asylum policies, the White House has freed immigration officers around the country to round up and deport undocumented immigrants, regardless of whether they have committed serious crimes.

The administration has also moved to limit the highly skilled immigrants whom technology companies bring to the United States and to subject them to much tougher vetting. A recent proposal would also deny the spouses of such immigrants the ability to legally work in the country, a change that could lead many couples to leave.

During the 2018 midterm elections, Mr. Trump campaigned on little else, to the dismay of some Republican lawmakers, who argued that the president should have focused more on the booming economy and the passage of a major tax cut during his first two years.

But Mr. Miller and Mr. Trump have shown little interest in pulling back on the immigration agenda.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: HUD Moves to Limit Immigrant Housing Aid. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe